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INDEPENDENCE, Mo., Sept. 20 (UPI) -- A Missouri high school principal says students wishing to attend this year's dances must sign contacts designed to halt sexually charged dancing.

Principal Kristel Barr of Truman High School in Independence said the contract, posted to the school's Web site, must be signed by students and their parents before they can attend dances, KMBC-TV, Kansas City, Mo., reported Monday.

Interesting. We had a similar form that all kids were to sign at the beginning of school but it was just a general "I will follow the rules" sort of thing that was forgotten then next day. Maybe this will work better since they can ban those who break the contract from future dances.

This is retarded. These morons fall into the same group that believe if you don't teach students about sex, they won't engage in sexual activities. Tell the parents that complain about it to send their kids to private school or home school if they don't like it. (Here's a hint... their kids are still going to have sex anyway)

Burying your heads in the sand doesn't make your 'problem' go away. Kids were dancing the same way 15 years ago when I was in middle school. Kids have been dancing the same way (effectively) for more than a hundred years. Kids have been having sex since the dawn of time, pretending it's not going to happen does not work. The best you can do is teach your kids about it, how it can be wonderful, but also how it can have lifelong consequences if (when) things don't go as planned.

Our school has a similar policy. We put it in place after, at a dance, a male student stuck his hand in a girl's underwear. When this happened, there were multiple things that resulted. The male students at the school patted this guy on the back for trying to get in this girl's pants, and the female student was reluctant to come forward because she was afraid of what might happen to her if she did. The administration was reluctant to penalize the male student because they didn't think it was a big deal.

I am not one to encourage the censoring of one's dancing or other artistic expression, and I understand that there is no policy that will stop people from having sex. I do think teaching young people to respect one another and demanding respect in return is an important lesson to teach. Even though I "get" what teenagers are doing, I still don't want my child going to a dance and grinding on someone, or getting grinded on by some horny teenager. I expect that such things will happen, but I won't put my seal of approval on it. I want my child to grow up feeling empowered and know that it is not okay to disrespect or violate, and expect nothing less in return. As teenagers, they may not understand this subject, but the adults do. We have a responsibility to teach these lessons, no matter how much our teenagers (and some adults) may think we're crazy.

Our school has a similar policy. We put it in place after, at a dance, a male student stuck his hand in a girl's underwear. When this happened, there were multiple things that resulted. The male students at the school patted this guy on the back for trying to get in this girl's pants, and the female student was reluctant to come forward because she was afraid of what might happen to her if she did. The administration was reluctant to penalize the male student because they didn't think it was a big deal.

I am not one to encourage the censoring of one's dancing or other artistic expression, and I understand that there is no policy that will stop people from having sex. I do think teaching young people to respect one another and demanding respect in return is an important lesson to teach. Even though I "get" what teenagers are doing, I still don't want my child going to a dance and grinding on someone, or getting grinded on by some horny teenager. I expect that such things will happen, but I won't put my seal of approval on it. I want my child to grow up feeling empowered and know that it is not okay to disrespect or violate, and expect nothing less in return. As teenagers, they may not understand this subject, but the adults do. We have a responsibility to teach these lessons, no matter how much our teenagers (and some adults) may think we're crazy.

I agree, if the actions by the male student were unwanted by the female student, it definitely was a problem... but not as a result of dancing.

So instead of regulating them... empower them. Teach them to 'own' themselves, teach them to stand up for themselves, teach them to be responsible for themselves and you'll find it a thousand times more fruitful than directing them how to live their lives. If two teens want to 'grind' together, I see no problem with it; if one teen starts to get uncomfortable with a situation, teach them to say "no" and to stick up for their personal boundaries.

On top of that, I think boxing classes should be introduced in phys.ed as a mandatory unit that they spend a considerable amount of time on. Carefully monitored and matched (not putting the heavyweight against a flyweight), it teaches students about respect, it teaches them how to react to a bad situation and teaches them to no be afraid to stand up for themselves (or others), not to mention the chance to fight back against the obesity epidemic. Although that part is a conversation left for another day...

There's a big difference between completely censoring sex education and asking students to conduct themselves appropriately in a public setting. They are still minors under school jurisdiction and should be expected to follow school rules. If it were me, I probably would have broadened the scope of the contract to include no boozing, fighting, etc. When you target sexuality specifically it becomes a bit more sticky.

I'm as progressive as they come and agree about educating students appropriately as opposed to 'abstinence all the way'. Part of that is understanding appropriate time and place. Maybe I'm off-base, but I dont think school-sponsored functions are appropriate. From a realistic standpoint, no contract is going to stop some hormone-crazed teenagers, so they'll get that real life experience anyway! I dont think the administration is in any way out of line in setting such guidelines though.

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